Looking for hardware recommendations: WAN Failover, WiFi
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Thank you in advance.
I am looking for a hardware recommendation for the following parameters:
Office of 50 people
Wireless network for internal network
Wireless network for guests
Wired connection to the switch
Two WAN connections (50Mbps)
Site to site tunnel with another PFsense that is relatively low traffic
Enough to handle VPN connections from laptops, phones, and iPads.
As cheap and reliable as possible of course.Wifi is not absolutely necessary if it is cheaper to just get some access points.
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You won't need a ridiculous amount of hardware for this requirement. Some of the entry level supermicro boxes (or dell servers) will certainly fit this requirement assuming you're going rackmount. I would probably not put wifi cards on the box, better to use a separate access point attached to the network and in a more comfortable location.
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Thank you.
Do you think I can get away with one of the tiny fanless units?
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You might be hitting the edge of the capabilities of an Alix if you're really planning to push 50mb, you could possibly do it with a Soekris, although for the sake of further expansion, its probably best to consider something a little bigger.
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Thank you very much.
Posting specifications of recommendations:
ALIX.2D3 GeodeLX800 Specifications:
Key Features
AMD Geode LX CPU, 500 MHz (LX800) 5x86 CPU
256 KB cache (64K data + 64K instruction + 128K L2)
3 Ethernet channel (Via VT6105M)
1 miniPCI for 802.11 wireless cards and other expansion
256 MB DDR SDRAM, 64 bit wide for high memory bandwidth
512 KB flash for Award system BIOS.
CompactFlash + 44 pin IDE header for user's operating system and application
12V DC supply through DC jack
1 serial port (DB9 male + 10 pin header)
2 USB 2.0 ports
Header for LPC bus (use for flash recovery or I/O expansion)
Three front panel LEDs, pushbuttonSoekris net4801 Specifications:
266 Mhz NSC SC1100 single chip processor
128 Mbyte SDRAM, soldered on board
4 Mbit BIOS/BOOT Flash
CompactFLASH Type I/II socket
UltraDMA-33 interface with 44 pins connector for 2.5" Hard Drive
3 10/100 Mbit Ethernet ports, RJ-45
2 Serial ports, one eternal DB9 and one 10 pins header
USB 1.1 interface (one external port)
Power LED, Activity LED, Error LED
Mini-PCI type III socket
PCI Slot, right angle 3.3V signaling only
12 bit general purpose I/O, 20 pins header
Temperature and voltage monitor
Hardware watchdog
Board size 5.2" x 5.7"
Power using external power supply is 6-20V DC, max 15 Watt
Option for 5V supply using internal connector
Operating temperature 0-60 °C
Software:
comBIOS for full headless operation over serial port
PXE boot rom for diskless booting
Designed for FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux
Runs most realtime operating systems
• Shipped Weight : 3 lbs
• Dimensions : 10" x 6" x 2" -
I would recomend going for something more powerful.
If you ever decide to use any other pfsense feature you'll soon find yourself running out processing cycles and/or ram.
Some of the fanless atom boards are nice and not too expenssive. The triple lan requirement is limiting. Jetway offer a 3xlan daugterboard for their atom boards.
If you have a VLAN capable switch you could just use that for interfaces.Steve
